Thank you, North Market! (and a sidebar)

Oh North Market Apron Gala, how I love you! We had tons and tons of fun Saturday night! The North Market Apron Gala is an event that benefits the North Market Development Authority. Those are the folks that run the North Market. It’s a historical place! The event consists of walking around the North Market and eating and drinking until you can’t do it anymore.

Heather, Mary Martineau and me. You really should have seen her shoes. The whole outfit was awesome!

How we got involved in all this, was Mary Martineau. She’s the marketing director for the North Market. If you ever work on a project with Mary, you better have your shit together is all I’m saying. We made the aprons for the host committee and then created custom aprons for the sponsors. I knew we had to really put our best into these, since Mary was our connection for the event. She just really does a great job and has it all together so you don’t want to be the messed-up cog in the machine, you know?

I wasn’t sure what to expect. I had heard there was a ton of food and drink and people and celebrities. It’s true, people! All of it is true! It was sort of funny with the food because here is this awesome food and it’s just sitting there for you to take. Bryan went up to Firdous and the chicken kabob was calling to him, “I can just take this?!” the guy said “Yep!” and we were off!

Whenever we saw someone in one of our aprons we tried to get their picture. Everyone was really nice about it, maybe because we were so excited. It was like Christmas every time!

Rodney Wasserstrom and me!

Around one corner, a guy came towards us in his apron and I recognized the Wasserstrom logo and cleaver we had made. “Hey!” I said, “Can I get my picture taken with you? I made that!” He said sure and I had to fix the strap for him and adjust it all to look good and I was pretty much all up in his grill. He asked what I did for a living and I told him Heather and I make housewares and clothing from salvaged fabrics. I asked him what he did and he said he was Rodney Wasserstrom. I know! I about died. DIED! I apologized for adjusting his clothes and luckily, Mary Martineau walked up and stopped me before it got worse. He was super nice and he looks dashing in the apron. (Too bad the pic is a little blurry)

Super-nice Ben Walters of Short North Spices

More food and drink! Bryan said the pulled pork sandwich at North Market Spices was excellent. Let me tell you, those guys are so freaking nice over there. Ben was there and his mom and I think it was his dad or a friend. If someone knows let me know! They were just having a great time.

Tom Griesdorn!

Around another corner, we saw a guy in his WBNS 10tv apron. It was Tom Griesdorn! He’s got a serious job as president and station manager at 10tv. He was also kind enough to let us get his picture too. Tom’s a big muckity-muck, people, and he was just hanging out in his apron. This event is awesome!

Patient and kind Limited Brands Gala-goer

This lady from Limited Brands was so nice to us! She waited patiently while we worked out camera glitches and let us take her picture. Her friends were all nice and complimentary over the apron too. Yay!!

Heather, Bethia, me, and Andy Dehus

Bethia Woolf and Andy Dehus of Columbus Food Adventures were there, of course! Bethia pretty much knows everything about food. She was one of Columbus Alive’s People to Watch in 2010. As I was just stalking her online I also learned that she taught at Smith. Smith! I think I got smarter by touching her, I swear to God!

I didn’t get a pic of CMH Gourmand, Jim Ellison, which is unfortunate. He offered some good parenting advice and it’s always fun to talk to him. He’s also a food genius person. I really admire that in others because I possess none of it myself.

If you follow me on Twitter, you might know that I love Columbus Brewing Company Beer. I do I do! I don’t drink a lot. I have one beer per day at 4pm and that’s usually it. Seeing as how I have one per day, it’s got to be a good one. That special beer for me is Columbus Brewing Company’s Pale Ale. Some days it’s the IPA. I could go on and on. Another point to remember is that I know zero about brewing beer. It’s as though it’s magic to me. You put some crazy stuff in a jar and you get beer! Magic! As a fan of Columbus Brewing, making their apron was so awesome! When I say “I’m a fan” of something, it means I’m kind of ape shit focused about it. (If you want to hear a funny little story about how I met them in an airport in Denver, read in the yellowish box functioning as a sidebar below. If you don’t care about that, skip it.) We played around with their logo and came up with this!

Heather, Eric Bean (his signature is on the dang box, people!), and me

Heather has quite an eye for things. (Just last weeked she recognized Greg Lashutka at the North Market shopping) I tend to see mostly just the shiny things. As we were coming out of the Dispatch kitchen, Heather nudged me and whispered “Columbus Brewing! Columbus Brewing!” We got to get our picture taken with Eric and I will talk about it every day. Beth Bean must think I am insane. These people are some of my business heroes! I got to meet them!

At the end of it all, Dave Wible gave us a bouquet of flowers! Dude, I felt like some kind of empowered Cinderella! I was really surprised by this. He was so kind to have worked with us and we really appreciated the opportunity. Thanks, Dave!

Heather and me at the Apron Gala. I certainly couldn’t do this without her and this awesome town.

Now we’ve got to come up with something supercool for next year! You can see all of our pics over at our facebook page here!